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Comment by lujim | Hacker News Reader

Are you saying that organizations like ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN etc are reasonably fair and unbiased without any underlying political motivations? If that is the case then go watch some replays from election night. It was the first time in my life where I really felt like it may not be possible to get reasonably unbiased factual information from a single US news organization.

I was watching live when Martha Raddatz almost broke into tears on ABC news. I was thinking "Is she going to start crying? Who is allowing her to be on camera as a serious news person".

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I don't like to defend cable news because much of it is terrible, but I'd argue that this kind of election night coverage absolutely delivered factual information, albeit also with heavy helpings of opinion on the side (literally, in the case of the CNN talking heads from both parties).

For instance, no cable network broadcast incorrect election results. They all informed viewers of the accurate, correct vote counts as they came in. By comparison, a fake news site was at the top of Google a few days ago with a story that literally lied about the popular vote count, saying that Trump had won it.

I'm not saying cable news is great - far from it - but these fake news sites are in a league of their own.

Sure they didn't say Clinton won a state that she really didn't win nor did they say she won the election when she didn't. It is possible to be quite dishonest through exaggeration, omission, and sensationalism. It is also possible to be dishonest by producing models that are later shown to be hilariously wrong and passing it off as incompetence rather than misinformation (98% chance of a Clinton victory anyone?)

When I see the kind of blatant bias that the anchors on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN etc showed on election night I can't help feeling like the networks that write their paychecks are intentionally trying to misinform people for their own gain.

Media organizations are corporations, and their primary interest is making money, which means getting viewership for their advertisers. Sure they have some political motivations as it relates to their business, as any business does, but this idea that media organizations are liberal political actors needs some justification.

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